mountainmare
January 27th, 2005, 07:18 PM
This was a repositioning cruise so was not port intensive--it's really easy to get used to sea days!
Fort Lauderdale: I arrived Friday AM to visit with family and booked a great two room apt at the Blue Seas Courtyard, a great 1940s restored hotel in Lauderdale by the Sea. Nice sleepy "old Fla" town, great walking area-there was a free jazz concert on Friday night . $20 cab ride to Ft Laud proper. Nice quiet beachwith snorkeling reef within swimming distance. Water taxi gets to start of town but that was still 10 blocks to hotel.
Cartagena: I was not too thrilled to come here-after all it is Columbia and I read RevNeil's review. This was the only stop in the Carribean so I really wanted to go to yhe beach. I am a tree hugger and the Rosario Islands tour includes a dreaded dolphin show, but Beach and Boating says that the beach is rocky(I want sandy after all its my only Carribean beach chance) I wrote to HAL and they said to check with the tour group, but I could probably skip the dolphins. Shore excursion desk said no way--so I sign up for beach and boating.
This is a beautiful port to sail into, forts, lighthouse, impressive skyline and beautiful Madonna statue in the middle of the bay. So I was excited to take my tour.
We were the first tour to leave and about 15 of us walk down the pier to get into a speed boat that can hold around 20 people if it was really full. Our tour guide Martine narrates a nice tour of the bay giving us a history of Cartagena, then we head for the beach--a 20 min speedboat ride(read:bumpy) to the beach. As we approach, we see a group-actually a really big HORDE-of people gathering on the public beach to which we are heading. At this point Martine tells us that these are vendors- who can be aggressive and its a good idea to leave valuables on the boat. We get off the boat by climbing between the motors and jumping into the sea. We are mobbed by vendors-aggressive is an understatement!
There is a small reef so I snorkel, the beach is rustic but not rocky, normally I would beach walk but here it is not safe. If you get up vendors grab at you, if you lay down they crowd around you- a strange little woman pours oil on you and tries to give you a massage, no matter how much you say no. I can't even read without vendors standing over me. For $44 I get dumped on a public beach in Columbia--I am not a happy camper!!!
On the way back Martine offers to give a 3 hour tour of the city for $15. I want to see the old city and ask if he will take me and DH(who stayed on the ship) for a 1 hr tour to just the old city. He agrees and we are given a wonderful tour. He proudly points out the house og Nobel author Gabriel Garcia ******* and we discuss 100 years of Solitude. With just the three of us I feel safe. Martine does a good job of handeling the ever present vendors with a wave of his hand as we walk through the old city. At the end the tour took 2 hours because we took our time and he charges us a total of $20, we give him $30 the price of the original tour.
I DO NOT UNDER ANY CIRCUMSTANCES SUGGEST THAT ANYONE CONSIDER GOING OUT A DOING A TAXI TOUR AT THIS PORT. IT IS NOT SAFE!!!!!
I chose Martine because he had already been hired by HAL as a tour guide and he had the credentials to meet us inside the port at the gangway of the ship.
Cartagena is so sad. HAL is the only cruise line making regular stops here. They used to have over 250 ships per year, last year they had 56 and this year they can only count on HAL- and I think Hal is crazy to stop hear because it is not safe!! Its a beautiful city, I'm glad I saw it, glad I met Martine,but it makes me sad and I don't want to go back. Unemployment is over 85%, the interior is a war zone and the situation has chased tuorists and jobs away--but now I do have a better understanding of 100 Years of Solitude.
Panama Canal: We did a partial transit last year so I was more excited by the cruising all the way through the canal than the lock activity, but I still found myself out on the bow at 5am as we passed other ships to pick up the pilot.The locks really are amazing and this time I watched instead of taking a million lock pictures. The bow of the O-dam is easier to see over than the Rotterdam, and our cabin was perfect mule height. As we sailed through Gatun Lake you could hear monkeys in the trees. Pictures do not do the Culebra Cut and Gold Hill justice. I suggest that if you are planning to sail to the canal you read McCullough's Path Between the Seas to gain an appreciation of the courage and sacrifice that went into the building of this wonder of engineering. Anne Vipond's Panama Canal by Cruise Ship is also a good read.
Last year we sailed in Feb and could clearly see the Southern Cross--this year it was at times overcast but no matter where we looked we couldn't find it. Does anyone know if we were at the wrong time of the year to see it?
Fort Lauderdale: I arrived Friday AM to visit with family and booked a great two room apt at the Blue Seas Courtyard, a great 1940s restored hotel in Lauderdale by the Sea. Nice sleepy "old Fla" town, great walking area-there was a free jazz concert on Friday night . $20 cab ride to Ft Laud proper. Nice quiet beachwith snorkeling reef within swimming distance. Water taxi gets to start of town but that was still 10 blocks to hotel.
Cartagena: I was not too thrilled to come here-after all it is Columbia and I read RevNeil's review. This was the only stop in the Carribean so I really wanted to go to yhe beach. I am a tree hugger and the Rosario Islands tour includes a dreaded dolphin show, but Beach and Boating says that the beach is rocky(I want sandy after all its my only Carribean beach chance) I wrote to HAL and they said to check with the tour group, but I could probably skip the dolphins. Shore excursion desk said no way--so I sign up for beach and boating.
This is a beautiful port to sail into, forts, lighthouse, impressive skyline and beautiful Madonna statue in the middle of the bay. So I was excited to take my tour.
We were the first tour to leave and about 15 of us walk down the pier to get into a speed boat that can hold around 20 people if it was really full. Our tour guide Martine narrates a nice tour of the bay giving us a history of Cartagena, then we head for the beach--a 20 min speedboat ride(read:bumpy) to the beach. As we approach, we see a group-actually a really big HORDE-of people gathering on the public beach to which we are heading. At this point Martine tells us that these are vendors- who can be aggressive and its a good idea to leave valuables on the boat. We get off the boat by climbing between the motors and jumping into the sea. We are mobbed by vendors-aggressive is an understatement!
There is a small reef so I snorkel, the beach is rustic but not rocky, normally I would beach walk but here it is not safe. If you get up vendors grab at you, if you lay down they crowd around you- a strange little woman pours oil on you and tries to give you a massage, no matter how much you say no. I can't even read without vendors standing over me. For $44 I get dumped on a public beach in Columbia--I am not a happy camper!!!
On the way back Martine offers to give a 3 hour tour of the city for $15. I want to see the old city and ask if he will take me and DH(who stayed on the ship) for a 1 hr tour to just the old city. He agrees and we are given a wonderful tour. He proudly points out the house og Nobel author Gabriel Garcia ******* and we discuss 100 years of Solitude. With just the three of us I feel safe. Martine does a good job of handeling the ever present vendors with a wave of his hand as we walk through the old city. At the end the tour took 2 hours because we took our time and he charges us a total of $20, we give him $30 the price of the original tour.
I DO NOT UNDER ANY CIRCUMSTANCES SUGGEST THAT ANYONE CONSIDER GOING OUT A DOING A TAXI TOUR AT THIS PORT. IT IS NOT SAFE!!!!!
I chose Martine because he had already been hired by HAL as a tour guide and he had the credentials to meet us inside the port at the gangway of the ship.
Cartagena is so sad. HAL is the only cruise line making regular stops here. They used to have over 250 ships per year, last year they had 56 and this year they can only count on HAL- and I think Hal is crazy to stop hear because it is not safe!! Its a beautiful city, I'm glad I saw it, glad I met Martine,but it makes me sad and I don't want to go back. Unemployment is over 85%, the interior is a war zone and the situation has chased tuorists and jobs away--but now I do have a better understanding of 100 Years of Solitude.
Panama Canal: We did a partial transit last year so I was more excited by the cruising all the way through the canal than the lock activity, but I still found myself out on the bow at 5am as we passed other ships to pick up the pilot.The locks really are amazing and this time I watched instead of taking a million lock pictures. The bow of the O-dam is easier to see over than the Rotterdam, and our cabin was perfect mule height. As we sailed through Gatun Lake you could hear monkeys in the trees. Pictures do not do the Culebra Cut and Gold Hill justice. I suggest that if you are planning to sail to the canal you read McCullough's Path Between the Seas to gain an appreciation of the courage and sacrifice that went into the building of this wonder of engineering. Anne Vipond's Panama Canal by Cruise Ship is also a good read.
Last year we sailed in Feb and could clearly see the Southern Cross--this year it was at times overcast but no matter where we looked we couldn't find it. Does anyone know if we were at the wrong time of the year to see it?